Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

Sturmgewehrs: The Original and the HMG Reproduction

December 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 22

While I was busy posting RIA videos last month, my friend Karl and I traveled down to Atlanta to visit Hill & Mac Gunworks. They are making a reproduction StG-44 rifle with a number of […]

German Naval P04 Luger at RIA

December 1, 2015 Ian McCollum 24

Most everyone is familiar with the Luger pistol – it is one of the most iconic handgun designs ever made. Folks who have a passing interest in the guns will probably know about both the […]

C93 Borchardt: the First Successful Self-Loading Pistol at RIA

November 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 39

Hugo Borchardt was a brilliant and well-traveled firearms designer. He was born in Germany but emigrated to the United States at a fairly young age, where he became engaged in the gun trade. He spent […]

Union/Reifgraber .32 S&W Autopistol at RIA

November 28, 2015 Ian McCollum 36

The Reifgraber, aka Union Automatic Pistol, is an interesting mechanical design from an inventor with an interesting personal background. Joseph Joachim Reifgraber was born in Austria in 1856, and emigrated to the United States at […]

Erika 4.25mm Pistol at RIA

November 25, 2015 Ian McCollum 37

Today we’re looking an another early European micro-pistol. This is the Erika, developed by Franz Pfannl and chambered for the 4.25mm Liliput cartridge (which develops approximately 1/4 the energy of the .25 ACP). These pistols […]

Detonics MkI at RIA: The Original Sub-Compact 1911

November 23, 2015 Ian McCollum 40

Today we are accustomed to seeing sub-compact 3.5″ 1911 pistols for sale from a whole bunch of manufacturers – but this was not always the case. Making a really small 1911 actually run reliably is […]

Plus Ultra: The Supersized Ruby Pistol at RIA

November 21, 2015 Ian McCollum 29

The “Plus Ultra” was a variation on the Ruby automatic pistol made by Gabilondo y Urresti (the original holders of the Ruby trademark) just shortly before they changed their name to Llama. The Plus Ultra […]

Colt Z40 Pistol #1 at RIA

November 15, 2015 Ian McCollum 50

However, after only 800 had been sold, Colt backed out of the deal and dropped the Z40 from its catalog. Why? Because they had happened to use a Z40 as the base gun for a […]

Colt Model 1909 Automatic at RIA

November 11, 2015 Ian McCollum 28

A while back I put together a video on the development of the Colt/Browning 1911 pistol, and one of the missing links in that video was the Model 1909. Well, one of the 23 Model […]

Sunngård 1909 Pistol

November 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 20

Just a photo – of probably the nicest Sunngård pistol in existence today, along with its holster. Thanks to Lars for sending it!